Portable and handheld devices have become ubiquitous the past several years. The proliferation of monitors, media players, portable media players, tablet, netbook, laptop, and all-in-one computers, cell phones, smart phones, and other devices has increased in an unabated manner that shows no signs of letting up.
These devices have become smaller and slimmer, and have been designed to include ever-increasing levels of functionality. The trend for the foreseeable future is to pack more features into increasingly smaller devices.
As a result, many parts of these devices, such as screens, controls, casings, power supplies, circuits, and other parts, have become smaller. It may be desirable to reduce the size of other components as well. For example, it may be desirable to reduce the size of connector receptacles.
Connector receptacles typically appear as a cavity, often on a side of an electronic device. These receptacle cavities may be arranged to receive a second electronic device or a connection to a second electronic device. For example, they may be arranged to receive a second electronic device, such as a memory device. These devices may include cards such as Secure Digital cards, Secure Digital High Capacity cards, Secure Digital Extended Capacity cards, memory sticks, compact flash, wireless transceiver, and other types of cards and modules. The receptacle cavity may also be arranged to receive a connector insert, which may be connected to a cable, a docking station, or other electronic component.
The connector receptacle may include a number of contacts to mate with contacts of a connector insert to form electrical or optical pathways. These electrical and optical pathways may include paths for power, data, status, control, or other types of signals.
Since these connector receptacles may form cavities along a side of an electronic device, they consume space in the electronic device. Since this space could otherwise be used to provide a smaller device or a device having increased functionality, it is desirable to reduce the size of these connector receptacles.
Thus, it is desirable to provide connector receptacles having a smaller size.